Rains arrive 2 weeks before schedule in Delhi

New Delhi, June 17: The rains arrived in the national capital 13 days before schedule on Sunday and gave a record-breaking and isolated spell of 117.8 mm of shower within a few hours at the IGI Airport area. The local Met office recorded nearly 37 mm of rainfall till 5 pm.

Palam Met office said such heavy rainfall over the IGI Airport was seen last on September 15, 2011.

Director of Indian Metereological Department B P Yadav said the monsoon arrived in Delhi two weeks before its scheduled arrival on June 29 and has now covered the entire country.

The onset of monsoon was delayed by eight days in 2012. It had reached the capital before schedule in 2011 (June 26) but late in 2010 (July 5). The earliest onset of monsoon recorded in the past three decades was in 2008 (June 15) while the most delayed arrival was in 1987 (July 26).

The shower also pulled down the mercury to 37.2 degrees Celcius, two points below normal.

Weather officials said the early monsoon was caused by low pressure surface winds in southern Delhi, over northwest Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring Rajasthan, along with associated circulation leading up to the mid-tropospheric levels.

The Met department said the country will get normal and fairly distributed rainfall in the next two months. The monsoon has recorded an excess of 28 per cent of rainfall since its onset over Kerala on June 1, it said.

Passengers face a harrowing time at IGI Airport

On Sunday, passengers were seen wading through knee-deep water at the IGI Airport while the baggage-handling department left crippled in the rain. The amount of rainfall, along with poor drainage in the surrounding area and low topography of the airport, saw water flowing back towards the Terminal 3. Services at the domestic arrivals were badly affected and airport authorities were forced to close the four baggage belts, causing much problem to the passengers.

The airport had seen a similar scene on September 2011, when it had received ovr 115 mm of rainfall in just two-and-half hours.